


Kenshi Diaries: Notes Of A Scavenger

by Saintstone



Category: Kenshi (Video Game)
Genre: Buddy Story, First Person, Gen, Kenshi, Ninjas - Freeform, The Hub - Freeform, holy nation, mentions of drinking, sheks, united cities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26715553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saintstone/pseuds/Saintstone
Summary: A scavenger from The Hub finds a blank book and decides to pass the time by writing his thoughts down.
Kudos: 4





	Kenshi Diaries: Notes Of A Scavenger

Nat - First entry - At the bar in the ruins of ‘The Hub’

For once I can count myself lucky. I was able to find this, you I guess, in my last scavenging trip. Writing is one of the few things one can still do to pass the time if they don’t have any cats (Kenshi term for money) for grog or rum or entertainment. Lucky that I haven’t forgotten how to read or write yet. Most people don’t carry books, except a copy of The Holy Flame, let alone carry any blank pages or ink on them. Look at me, wasting already quite a bit of this page just rambling to myself. I guess it’s nice to collect my thoughts in between all the running from the bonedogs or slavers.

That said I wonder if anyone here in this bar can actually read or write. I wouldn’t assume any of the vagabonds or runaway slaves here ever bothered to learn or honestly had much time. I was fortunate I guess to be able to grow up under the tutelage of a mother who knew how to read and write. I was less fortunate that the Holy Nation didn’t care too much for a woman knowing how to read and write so they took her to Reborn as a prisoner and left me an orphan. ‘Okran would take care of you!’ they said as they left me to fend for myself. I ran off instead and scavenged or stole to feed myself. Even then I knew better and hid my disdain for the Paladins while squatted in their cities and ate the food from their farms.

The Holy Nation are nothing but hyper religious zealots with a humans only dogma. If you aren’t a greenlander, or odd-colored but still human scorchlanders, you’re not welcome. If you’re a Skeleton (what robots in Kenshi are called) you’re basically killed on sight. Hell women are barely even better off than the non-humans. The Holy Phoenix leads them, apparently some reincarnation of the messengers of Okran, whose duty is to guide the nation against its foes which basically means everyone else.

There have always been tensions between the Sheks and the Holy Nation, though to be honest everyone has tension with everyone, and it escalated with the Sheks eventually torching down The Hub and creating this wide ‘no-mans-land’ called the Border Zone between the two factions. People say the Sheks are true assholes but at the very least they’re blunt and straightforward. These Sheks, bone-plated, grey-skinned horned people, only care about fighting to the point where they’ve disregarded everything else their cities are falling apart and their people are starving. If it weren’t for their leader Esata, who apparently is trying to quell their violent tendencies and fix internal issues, I’m pretty sure the Sheks would have either overrun everyone or died off in their constant wars.

We’re pretty lucky at least that they’re kept in check by the United Cities. If that alliance of city-states controlled and run by a bunch of egomaniacal, selfish, greedy nobles wasn’t around then the Sheks and the Holy Nation would have kept going at it. It’s basically an uneasy stalemate between the three. If one attacks the other then they leave themselves vulnerable to the third. If I was to place money on who’d win though I would put it on the United Cities. Unfortunately I may lose that bet since Emperor Tengu can barely rally the nobles to agree to anything and instead they just spend their time abusing the peasants and smoking their hash. If the Samurais below them weren’t also as corrupt and drugged up then perhaps they could stop losing their trade routes to the myriad of bandits that plague every corner.

Luckily here in The Hub I don’t have to deal with any of them. Whatever was left standing in The Hub is now protected by the Trade Ninjas and the Tech Hunters and, as long as you play by the rules, they tend to leave you alone - plus they don’t ask questions as to where you got your scavenged goods.

Look at me go on a huge tangent about what everyone already knows. The Holy Nation are zealous assholes, the Shek are stupid, violent assholes and the United Cities are greedy assholes. Assholes all around, besides me of course. I scavenge bandit camps, battlefields and unfortunate souls and sell whatever I can. Of course there isn’t much of a market for used, rusted junk but sometimes I make enough that I can afford more than just a rice bowl. Still though it’s the best I can do. Reading and writing doesn’t get me anything unless you’re a priest or a tech hunter but good luck becoming one of those. I’m not much of a fighter either so I don’t have much going for me there. I guess the only thing I’m good at is sneaking around and stealing. However I think my luck is only just improving.

Today some old geezer walked into the bar. He called himself Hobbs and started asking for people to join him for a drink. No one obliged or even turned to meet him. I was haggling with the ninjas over my scavenge of the day and I was exhausted from that whole ordeal. Wouldn’t you know it, the only seat available was with that old man. I sat next to him with my own drink and bowl of rice - small - and he started going off on some random stories about how he’s traveled all across the land, seen beasts as tall as towers, fires that blasted down from the skies. He even claims to have made it through the mysterious Foglands not once but twice!

Hobbs asked me to gamble with him. He said we both ante up a few cats and stick them in a jug. We both shake the jug in unison and then drop the cats out, both of us calling either heads or tails and collecting whichever landed in our favor. He called heads and I called tails - and the cats ALL landed on heads.

“I won!” he said, as he collected the coins. I laughed a bit of course. I pointed that he sure did win and he was free to claim his useless coins. He was puzzled but was more shocked then when I revealed I had another batch of cats in my hand. I told him I noticed him switch out the coins with some fake ones, obviously some double-sided ones, and stuff the real ones in his sleeve which I promptly re-stole without him noticing.

“I knew it! I knew it!” he cackled with a yellow grin. He said he could tell I was as skilled as him. He told me he’s been looking for someone just like me, someone who’s tired of eating day-old rice and wanting more out of this world. Someone who’s perhaps not afraid of running from robot spiders, diving into old ruins and dodging the man-eating faunas. He secretly passed me a piece of parchment with a location marked whispering to me that this location marks a valuable treasure but he needs a partner to help him get it. He claims this treasure alone can make us enough cats to buy The Hub if we wanted to. If this old man is right then this might be my chance right?

Well he’s passed out right now from all the drinking and here I am writing by the lights still working at the bar. If this works out then who knows what this opens up? Maybe I can start my own trade caravan and make steady pay. Maybe I can claim some land and create a small industry of some kind. Perhaps I can even buy some actual equipment and become a bounty hunter and take some of those massive bounties I keep seeing at the bars. But look at me counting my fortunes before I’ve even made them. I may be Nameless right now but maybe someday people will look up to me and marvel at my adventures - and hopefully I have enough paper for them all.


End file.
